Friday, November 22, 2013

This is the 2nd layout I created as Sponsored Designer for Scraps Of Elegance. The Thankful Kit is so beautiful!! With the variety of patterns and colors, the papers are so versatile. For this layout I chose to use a piece of card stock from the add on Card Stock kit for my background. With inspiration I got from one of Gabrielle Pollacco's canvas layouts, I lightly covered the card stock with gesso using a credit card, to mimic a piece of canvas. Her work inspired me so.

I created some tattered flowers and used the kit flowers for the middle of the larger flower. The picture of my husband was altered using a program I found on the internet. Love the Vintage post card look to it. The delicate gold leaves were also in the main kit. It lends a little sparkle to the layout.

Before I throw away the box the kit came in, I used it to diecut some of the pieces on my layout. In the above photo, you can see the corrugated piece under the photo. Yup, from the box my kit came in.

Renea Harrison is the designer of the butterflies in the kit. They are precious. A little pop of yellow goes a long way on this very Vintage pink layout. The Prima 6x6 Stencil - Art Deco Design Background stencil in the kit is awesome!! I used gesso instead of texture paste. The look is a little smoother.

I love the sweet trim from the kit. I painted it with gesso and the red turned into a washed out pink color. I rubbed the resin pieces slightly with distress ink and did a little sewing around the picture.

It has been a pleasure working as a designer for Scraps Of Elegance these last few months. I have one more layout to reveal before I exit this totally awesome kit club. I hope you go visit the Scraps Of Elegance blog for more inspiration and see what the designers and Guest designer have created with the kit. The inspiration is beautiful!! And grab one of the Thankful kits before they are all gone!! Better yet, subscribe to Scraps Of Elegance so that you never miss another wonderful kit!!

Until next week, Have a wonderful Thanksgiving to all of my American friends!! xoxoxo

Friday, November 8, 2013

In the month of November in the United States, we have Thanksgiving. I give thanks to everything that I have every single day. And one of those things I am thankful for is having the talent to create art for some of the most wonderful companies in the world. Scraps of Elegance is one of them. So keeping with the theme of Thankfulness, I have chosen to create my first layout as an All About Me Page. Me, as an artist. Head on over to Scraps Of Elegance and grab the Thankful kit, or better yet, go Subscribe so that you will never miss another beautiful kit!! You'll be Thankful that you did.

I love the richness of the colors in all of the papers in the kit!! They
are bold, rich, and beautiful!!. Blue and brown remain one of my fave
color combos, and throw in a hint of orange and green and it just pops!!

I always order the card stock add on in a kit. You can use it for matting, die cuts and of course FlOWERS!! And you all know how much I love creating flowers. I enhanced the beautiful colors of the card stock using Luminarte Silks Acrylic Glaze. For the orange flowers I used Apricot Nectar. For the blue flowers I used Celadon. The flowers were all die cut from the Sizzix/Tim Holtz Tattered Floral die.

I love the Websters Pages Storytellers alphabet sticker sheet in the kit!!

Of course I have a love for Zva Creative flourishes. I am still hoarding the ones I recieved when I was on the DT!! Love them!! I added the bigger pearls from my own stash to match the lace that came in the kit.

Just a different angle to part of the layout.

And just a couple of closeups of the flowers I created using the card stock from the add on kit. I did add the sweet Prima flowers to the middles. Those were in the kit!! And the larger pearls were from my stash. They are the same ones I added to the Zva flourishes.

Thanks for coming for a visit. Be sure to visit Scraps Of Elegance and see what the other designers are creating with the Thankful Kit. You will be pleasantly inspired!!!

Thursday, November 7, 2013

I am so
very excited to have been asked to join the fabulous Splash Of Color
Design Team!!! I find myself reaching for all of their fabulous products
time after time. It was only natural that I accepted the invitation
with honor! So for my first official DT project, I bring to you a layout
on canvas, and a short tutorial on how I created the background.

I used BoBunny's paper from the Autumn Song and Double Dots Collection.

I touched up just about everything I used on this layout. The flowers
and the chipboard were all rubbed with the Metallic rub as well as the
some of the Silks. The BoBunny chipboard piece was enhanced using the Viva Colour Gold base metallic rub.

Here is one of the clusters of flowers that were touched up with the Silks. I used BoBunny flowers mixed in with Petaloo and Prima.

The big Orange flower was from a floral bush I found at Michaels. I just picked the flowers and leaves off of the plastic stalk.

TUTORIALTOCREATETHEFAUXEMBOSSEDCANVAS

To prepare your canvas, give it a good coat of gesso and let it dry.

After it
has dried, I die cut some Sizzix Alterations leaves from thin chipboard, and embossed them with the matching
embossing folder. I adhered them to the outer edges of the canvas with
some craft glue.

Once
they were adhered, I coated the whole canvas with a couple of coats of
gesso, making sure the edges of the die cut leaves were sealed.

I
used a little more of the Gold rub over the entire canvas to soften the
spots there was to much green. It evens out the whole look of the color.
I used a soft cloth to apply the rub.

Once
the canvas was coated, the magic begins. I used different colors of
Luminarte Silks Acrylic Glaze to give the canvas a bit of color. Because
the glaze is transprent, you don't need a lot to add the bit of color.
I used a small sponge applicator to rub in the various colors into the
canvas. The colors I used in this canvas piece were French Lilac, Plumeria, Celadon, and Snapdragon. There are so many color od Silks to choose from.

Thank
you for joining me for my first official post as a Splash Of Color Designer!!! I am so excited to be working with the wonderful artists on
the team and look forward to a productive, colorful new year!!!

Sunday, November 3, 2013

We are coming to a close of 2013 in a couple of months. I have enjoyed my last year working
with all of the beautiful Blue Fern Studios chip board and look forward
to a new year with new designs!! In the mean time, check back at Blue Fern Studios product page often as
new designs are added to the inventory often!!
For my first
project I did a 12x12 layout. I had to create a sweet layout to match
the wonderful photo of my daughter and her kitty. Bentley really is Sweet As Honey.

I
hope you save the innards of your chip board because they add a
wonderful design element to your projects!! And if not, you can always
purchase a pack of the various pieces where you find Blue Fern Studios
chip board. I used gesso as a base, then used Viva Crackle paint on top,
then painted them with Silks Acrylic Glaze in African Jade, Pretty Peridot, Pink Grapefruit, and Pomegranate after the crackle dried.

I
base coated all of my chip board pieces with gesso and used African Jade and Pretty Peridot for the title and the circle frame. . After they were dry, I rubbed some Viva Colour Metallic Rub in yellow/green around the outer circle frame.

I used Silks in Pink Grapefriut and Pomegranate on the flower chip board, Olive Vine on the stems and used a Viva pearl pen in gold to add the stamen in the middle.

I used Petaloo flowers on this layout. I added the Silks to the flowers to blend in with the layout. I just dabbed on the colors using my fingers randomly on each petal. I also used Silks in Olive Vine and rubbed it on the leaves.

I used the Viva Pearl Pen to dot the stamen in the flowers.

Here is just another closeup of the sweet picture. This cat just LOVES to be cuddled and loved on all day. When my daughter moved back from Oregon and bought the cat home, we kept him at our house when she moved to Orlando. We really spoiled him. I have become his second mother, and he just adores my father in law. Always sits at his feet. I am afraid my husband has also fallen in love with him. My daughter moved back home to take a job at an exclusive resort close to home, but when she moves out again, Bentley has to stay. This is his home!! Squatters rights!!

Sleeping with his mousie...

Blue Fern Bits

Circles

Large Garden daisies

Small Garden Daisies

The Latest Buzz

For
my next project, I created a card. Sometimes simplicity brings out the
beauty in a chip board piece. I didn't want the beauty of the bicycle
shape to get lost, so I made it the star of the card.

All
I did was heat embossed it using a fine black embossing powder. I used
layers of paper to frame the piece. This card can be used for many
occasions.

Friday, November 1, 2013

November is upon us...And that only means 1 thing...The Blue Fern Studios November Sketch Challenge is here!!!!! And a beauty it is!!! It simply amazes me how the designers interpreted this same sketch, and came out with a vision of love for each one. Each one beautiful in its own right. I hope you join us for the month of November and create a project of your own!! I am looking forward to seeing what you do.

I love the overall shape of the design in the sketch. I closed my eyes and envisioned this...Layers of flowers with vines here and there, and splashes of color!! I used the new Zip-A-Dee-Doodle papers from BoBunny. I fussy cut all of the flowers from 1 sheet of paper. I love the Doodle Flowers were a perfect match for the papers!!

The Blooming Flourish gives a nice balance to the point of the design. I dabbed it with Gesso and sprayed it with 2 different colors from The Industrial Chic set by Lindy's Stamp Gang created by my wonderful friend Limor Webber. She gifted me a set to play with, and I am in love with the gorgeous colors!!

I treated all of the doodle flowers using the same technique I used on the Blooming Flourish.I also die cut the leaves from scraps of paper and sprayed them as well. I just tucked them here and there on the page.

Here is a closeup view of one of the other Doodle Flowers.I even took one of the flowers, clipped it in half, and tucked the halves under the fussy cut flowers.

I adore the urban acronyms word set. You can use the innards which I did on another project. The positive and negative pieces all work beautifully!

The little bird cages in the Veranda Cage set are so darned sweet!!! I dabbed them with gesso using my finger then sprayed it and dried it with a heat gun. Once it was dried, I inked the edges to give it an aged look.

Here is close up of one of the other cages.

I layers a couple of the BoBunny papers doing a tear out section following the design lines of the sketch.

Blooming Flourish

Urban Acronyms Word Set

Doodle Flower Set

Veranda Cage set

Visit the Blue Fern Studios Home Page and find out where you can buy Blue Fern Studios chip board as well as visiting the whole sale store and see what you may like to order for your own store!! Then visit the Blue Fern Studios Blog and see the inspiration that the designer create for you week after week!! You don't want to miss a day!!